Stuck in Koyuk!

The village of Koyuk....
In a serious attempt to get caught up on my blogging, I am going to really attempt to post at least once a day for awhile!....We will see. These pictures were taken almost 2 months ago (I know!)...when I took a Frontier plane into Nome for Dan and Ethel Karmun's (Gary's grandparents) Anniversary party. A lot of the cousins were going to be there, and even Nellie came from out of town. I took a day off work, but when we stopped in Koyuk first, I never got any further. Upon taking off again the fuel line got disconnected on the plane and we never got altitude and the plane started making funny clunking noises- we had to circle right back around and land....and then I was there.... The villages do not have a building to go into and wait for things...

...unless, you count this, that is. I don't. So, I headed into town as suggested, and was told to come back in "a little bit".....sure. Not really having anywhere to go in the bush, I decided to go to the store. Got myself an orange soda and original flavored skittles- something we don't get in our village =) And one of the few candies, I really still love! I also stopped at the school, where the principal knows me and let me in to use the phone and call the Garrison's, to say I would be late....
I then headed back to the runway to wait....
I looked at the view, and waited......
and waited.....

and waited.....Nobody around, so I kept waiting......
And got bored, so decided to play with my camera.....


How long can I entertain myself this way you ask?

Actually, quite awhile it turns out- but then the batteries die, or get too cold, so you are left with nothing else to do. So, I then wandered around the airport a little....until I noticed somebody coming up. Any information? No. But the guy offered to take me to his house to wait, as it was close to the airport and I wouldn't miss anything. Turns out, I know his wife- a teacher in Koyuk. So, I got to hang out with Heather and she fed me pizza and showed me how to knit better =) We later found out the weather in Nome had gone down, so I was stuck in Koyuk for the night. Heather and Chuck let me stay in their spare bedroom though, and the next morning I made it back on the plane and I just went back to Elim (as I had already missed the party I figured I should just go back to work).

View from the plane.....



I then got a ride on the back of a sled into town- luckily this one had a musk ox hide on it, and I realized how NICE they are for padding your butt while going over bumps!

Thus ends my second plane "adventure" for the year! As another Frontier plane had recently collided into a mountain, leaving one teacher with a broken back, I feel pretty lucky with how mine have turned out!

Mr. Curiosity!

Here is my little buddy, Qunguk, whom I added to my family in December. He shares a birthday with Gary, September 24, and has been a great friend to have. He drives me crazy at times, but sometimes I need that! As you can see here, he really likes to crawl into small spaces...wherever he can find them!
Here he is playing with my stuffed bunny that Brian and Lana brought for me when I was in the hospital. He has taken it on as his new wrestling partner....and I will often find it laying in a completely different part of the house from where I left it.
A couple weeks ago, my little buddy (aka Gukaroo, Guk, or Mr. Curiosity) started feeling really sick. He started walking like this and crying non-stop. I was incredibly worried, and called the Nome vet, who could offer me no advice except to try and get ahold of some amoxicillan. I wasn't able to bring him into Nome the next day because the vet was closed on Sunday.....thus one of the things I do NOT like about livig in the bush! The local clinic would not give me amoxicillan for an animal, so I ended up giving him my antibiotics I had from after my surgery- cephalexin. Luckily, I was able to find out (with the help of Katie) that cephalexin is exactly the same thing given to animals as humans. Within a couple days of holding him down and trying to get him to eat some with a syringe (and getting myself pretty scratched up) and mixing it in tuna juice which worked much better, whatever was wrong with him seems to have cleared up and he is completely back to his old obnoxious self.....thank goodness!! My own uneducated diagnosis: a severe urinary infection. Poor guy.
If I bring home a box, this little guy CANNOT stay away from it, and has to see what is inside. Here I got my box of furs from Montana- needed more rabbit skins for my parkie....he was completely happy. His favorite are the small scraps of beaver fur- which he carries all over the house until (lately) he ends up playing with them in his water bowl, where they lay looking like a drowned rat for me to dig out =(

Despite all my efforts, I have not been able to yet keep this little guy off my table =( One of the few places he is not allowed. Here he is lying "in wait"...just waiting for me to turn my back so he can run across it, knowing that I will chase him to spray him with water. At first I started flicking him with water, then a simple water bottle, then a full fledged super soaker (table cloth removed for that period). Next step the bath tub? I have no idea. I have decided I don't want to clean up after the super soaker anymore, and he chewed off the end of my water bottle as a pre-emptive strike..... After being gone for nearly a week, I can only imagine that he is living on that table right now!! Renewal of the battle after I get home....
What a strange guy. He doesn't usually go after my milk- but LOVES white grapejuice!....will even dig in my trash to get it, and tries to get into my cups =(
When he really wants to drive me crazy he keeps playing with my table cloth, knocking it off the table, so that I constantly have to fix it. He likes to crawl under it, like he does the rugs and my blankets......
Happy kitty......! Ha ha! The kids love to come and play with him. Not sure he feels the same, but he has never scratched any of them. He gets a lot of excersise running away when the kids are there =)

"Helping" me with my mail....he likes to spread it all over and chase the paper.....
One of Guk's favorite places....as soon as I open my bag to get out my laptop, he is in there. He thinks this space belongs to him.

Qunguk comes up on the ridge of my tub, when I am taking a bath, and when I am taking showers- either pawing at my toes poking out of the bubbles, or playing with me between the two parts of the curtain. Just like Monster did, he will lay down right outside the bathroom door if I shut him out. With how much entertainment, frustration and joy this little bugger brings me- I am never bored!

Little Visitors....

I get quite a few little visitors knocking on my door.....some to visit because they are bored, some just needing to warm up.... Sometimes we make cookies together....
Or just have hot cocoa......
Play with things around the house- like my mukluks and ruff....

One day we made snowcones with the fresh snow in the yard =)


And here is my buddy Sadie visiting.....she makes me laugh a lot when she has these booties on. She walks really funny, as she doesn't particularly like how they feel on her feet =)